The Maid Behind The Bar
Reel in D Major · difficulty 3 of 5
The story of The Maid Behind The Bar
She has been "Judy", "The Green Mountain", even "Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel" - this reel has gone courting under half a dozen names. It is said to be at least two centuries old; it crossed the Atlantic with Famine-era emigrants and was a dance-hall favourite in America by the 1850s, decades before Ryan's Mammoth Collection (Boston, 1883) first put it in print.
It was James Morrison - the same Sligo fiddler the jig two pages over is named for - whose recordings fixed the tune and its barmaid title in the modern session. Today it is one of the most popular reels in Irish music: bright, rolling D major, and a natural next step on the whistle once The Silver Spear is under your fingers.
How to play The Maid Behind The Bar on tin whistle
Reels run in 4/4 with two big pulses to the bar. Keep the eighth notes even and let the emphasis, not extra speed, carry the drive.
The tab under the notes shows the whistle fingering for every note - filled circles are covered holes, and a + means the overblown octave. If you are new to stave notation, you can try reading the stave and tab together which gradually will make you learn the notation.
Start slow with a metronome getting the base melody right. As the fingers learn the tune, try adding some ornaments and gradually increase the tempo without losing control.
Notation is sourced from The Session, the community archive of traditional music.
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